Last Chance
by Vitriolic Lightning
Summary: What if Claire didn't have the choice to be human after Myrnin saved her in Last Breath? How would the book have changed after that? What would happen to Claire and Shane's relationship? To Claire and Myrnin's relationship? This is their story.
1. Last Breath

**What if Claire _didn't_ have the choice to be human after Myrnin saved her in Last Breath? How would the book have changed after that? What would happen to Claire and Shane's relationship?** **To Claire and _Myrnin's_ relationship? This is their story, told in a horribly short series of mini fics. **

**Enjoy.**

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><p>(Quote from Last Breath, pg 269, ch 16)<em><br>_

_She was weirdly calm. There was no way she could resist that pull. It was like a black hole, and she was standing on the event horizon._

_"Claire."_

_It was a whisper in the hurricane that roared around her, but she recognized the sound. Myrnin. That was Myrna's voice._

_"Here!" She screamed, as the void pulled her away. "Myrnin, help me! Help!"_

_The spinning peaces of reality around her seemed to slow down. She saw herself reflected in one side of a jagged shard, and then it turned, and she saw Myrnin's face in it. He looked worried, and there were lines of of effort around his mouth that she had never seen before._

_His hand reached out to her, but it was as if he was trapped behind the glass; his hand slapped against it, and then the spinning shard turned again, and she lost him._

_Claire twisted. There, in another piece, she saw him again, reaching out._

_"Take it," He was trying to tell her. It wasn't a voice-it was something else, a kind of whisper moving inside her, like blood in her veins. Only she no longer had blood, or veins._ _This was cumming out of her very core, the thing that had survived her body._

_Her soul._

_"Take my hand."_

_She couldn't. He was on the other side of that glass, and the pieces were moving, and she was being dragged inch by inch into the dark._

_Then she saw Shane in one of the spinning, glittering shards. He was on his back, propped up, staring out of the shred of reality, and he looked so agonizingly alone._

_"Take my hand, Claire-do it now! " Myrnin's whisper sounded desperate now. Anguished. This was hurting him, too._

_She kept her gaze on Shane's face , but she lunged for Myrnin's hand as another piece of reality slid past her._

_Her fingers broke the cold, icy surface and touched his._

_And reality came back together. She could still see the cracks, hear the awful noise of the darkness beyond that, but Myrnin's hand twisted and closed around her wrist in an unbreakable hold, and she fell, and fell, and fell. . . ._

_ And took a breath. _

_ A real breath. _

_ It hurt._

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><p><strong>Really short, I know, but I'm working on three other story's. The part that actually comes from me will be in the next chapter.<strong>

**Read and Review.**_  
><em>


	2. Fall

**OK, the paragraphs with the little * things next to them were either taken directly from the book or have elements in them taken directly from the book.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p>Claire hurt.<p>

Her heart beat, and it was like wave after wave of fire. Her breath scraped against her lungs, and it was like sandpaper against her throat. Pain. Her life was giving her pain. And there was something cold moving through her veins, soothing her pain. Cold and foreign. It had stillness like death, the promise of eternity. But the vibrancy and passion of life. It didn't _feel_ bad. Just different. But she knew it had a dark side to it, because she knew what it was.

It was Myrnin's blood.

*She could almost see him. Not him, physically, but his mind. His consciousness. His soul. The thing that made Myrnin, _Myrnin._ It was too much. Too much pain, too much color, too much sorrow, too much joy and loneliness and hunger and love. Too much of everything. This was the landscape he lived in, this was the wonderland behind the looking glass that made him what he was.

*He scared her, and charmed her, and made her want to cry.

*There was no way she could do it. No way she could make her heart work through all of this, her lungs breathing. The ice in her held a kind of peace, a release from pain. It was wonderful. Not exactly death, and not exactly life, but something of both, and it had the sharp clarity of eternity. It was so tempting to just fall into it, to see and experience something new, something so few people in history had ever seen.

She just had to let go.

_"Then let go. I'll catch you."_ Myrnin's cool hands were on her forehead, and his cool voice was inside her head._ "Let go, Claire. Trust me."_

Shane. She couldn't do this to Shane. Just the thought of him made her heart beat against the cold, pound harder and harder. She sensed this was killing her, but so was Myrnin's blood, in it's own way. She couldn't win.

No matter what, she would end up hurting him.

_"Please, Claire. I can't hold this forever. It's already been far too long as it is."_

She was torn, but really there had never been any choice. She took one last breath, and it hurt, God it hurt! But she savored the hurt, the hurt with all the pain and beauty and struggle and victory of life, just one last breath, and then. . . .

She fell, her heart stopped, and Myrnin caught her, and she died.

Again.

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	3. Changed

**Ehhh.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p>There is no possible way to describe those first milliseconds as a vampire. There are not words to say the things Claire experienced in that fraction of a fraction of a second. The English language simply did not have the capability.<p>

She opened her eyes, and was struck by the particular way they focused. Instead of having the regular perifical vision, she could now focus on her whole field of vision. For instance, while her eyes were facing directly upwards, she could see all four walls around her with the same clarity and detail as the ceiling. She blinked, although she no longer felt the need to, and had the unique experience of seeing both through and inside of her eyelids with perfect clarity.

_"Maybe Myrnin knows a language that can describe this. I'll have to get him to teach it to me sometime." _Claire thought. One thought among many. Her mind was not so limited as it had been as a human, and even as she thought a million and one thoughts, she was acutely aware of everything around her.

She could feel tantalizing heat radiating from two other forms in the room, and one cold. . . .no, not cold presence, not exactly. She was the same temperature, after all. It was electricity that burned cold. This was how her mind perceived the unseen presence of vampires now. This was what Myrnin was too her.

The hairs stood up on her body as she observed him in this new metaphysical sense, saw finally how incredibly enormous his. . .his authority? His power? No, that wasn't quite the word for it, but it was close. How enormous his power was. It was what she sensed in the strongest vampires of Morganville when they pulled out all the mojo they had and somehow began a struggle without using their body's. They used their minds.

She understood this was not a result of when their minds had touched earlier. No, that was much more personal. Rather, she would feel this with every vampire she came across.

_"This must be what Michele meant,"_ Claire thought. _"When he said that vampires had an instinctive grasp of where they stood with other vampires."_

All this came to her in less than three seconds._  
><em>

She herd Myrnin move, he staggered, stepped back, and fell. Strong as he was, what he did was not an easy thing. Claire closed her eyes, suddenly remembering that Shane was there. He had so far done nothing at all. As far as Claire could tell with her new senses, he had just frozen there, not moving the whole time. She didn't want to open them, not yet.

She didn't want to see him see her like this, not when even she hadn't come to terms with it yet.

She could feel Eve's uncertainty. She hesitated, and then she herd her walk over to Myrnin.

". . . Are you OK?"

She could hear the fabric of Myrnin's clothes shift, and the soft smack of skin on skin as he grabbed Eve's arm, vampire fast. Claire's eyes snapped open, and it was the oddest thing, because she could actually see her eyes turn red, as a growl ripped out of her throat, oddly the most natural thing she could have done.

Her body twisted, blurred, and she came up in a crouch, eyes narrowed at her crazy boss, as she prepared to attack him, to defend her friend, her human.

_"Mine."_ Claire thought at him. _"Mine. You can't have her."_

But then, she sucked in a breath to tell him this, that he most certainly could not have what was clearly her's, but then the smell hit her. Coying, sweet and salty. The blood pulsed just below Eve's skin, flushed and mesmerizing. And suddenly, her aim wasn't Myrnin.

The two hungry, red eyed vampires turned their gaze on Eve.

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	4. Hunger

**Enjoy.**

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><p>Claire dove forward, vampire fast, and came at Eve with fangs first. Myrnin shifted, putting himself in front of Eve, to protect her, or possibly to keep her all for himself, it was a little unclear. His fangs dropped down, and he crouched, growling. But he needn't have bothered.<p>

Shane was there.

Claire knew he was there from the creek of floor boards and the whisper of cloth on skin and the pounding his of blood, but Eve had been closer, and Claire could already smell the fear pounding in her veins. The little movements she made screamed at Claire that this was prey, helpless and weak and already held by another hunter. Claire wanted her. Wanted her more than she'd ever wanted to breathe.

But then Shane's arm snaked around her throat and pulled back sharply, and Claire's advance slowed, stopped, and strained against Shane's hold. But Claire was new and weak, and Shane had far too much experience wrestling vampires for it to be fair.

Claire could hear Shane whispering things in her ears, soothing sounds meant to calm her, but the words had no meaning. They were just sounds, she had no more understanding of them than an animal would have. And she was _hungry._

Taking him by surprise, she suddenly threw all her weight back and pushed off with her legs, throwing them both to the floor. Shane hit first, but he kept his hold. Claire began to struggle, but his legs came around her waist and she was trapped, and still she thrashed, trying to get her mouth around to his salty skin, to get her first taste of the ambrosia that flooded his body.

Her hands came up and began to claw at his arm, trying to pull it away from her throat so she could do something, _anything,_ because now it wasn't just hunger clawing it's way out of her stomach, it began to _burn_. Shane tightened his hold and his other arm came around and trapped her clawing hands against her chest.

She arched her back as a wordless shriek burst out of her. She was aware of muted voices in the background, and footsteps headed to the kitchen, but this was unimportant. The only thing that was real to her was the blood trickling out between her fingers as she dug her nails into Shane's arm. It was _so close._ And she was _so hungry._

Two hands suddenly clapped on the side of her face and she froze as Myrnin pinned her with his eyes.

"Be still." He whispered. "Be still."

And she was.

"Eve." He called. "Wheres that blood?"

Claire shuddered, but remained still in Shane's tense hold. He hadn't relaxed.

"Cumming!" Eve's clunky boots stomped down the hall. Claire distinctly herd the slosh of liquid in plastic. _Blood._ Claire thought. _Michele's blood packs._ Still, she froze, pinned, by Myrnin's pooling brown eyes, so pretty, faintly glowing red. _Like chocolate and blood._ She thought. _Chocolate and blood. So sweet._ His fingers were just the right temperature on her face, not flushed and hot and alluring like Shane's body, pressed against her skin.

Eve walked in carrying four blood packs, and Myrnin turned away, breaking the spell. Claire shuddered, closed her eyes, and folded into Shane's arms. She sucked in a breath, even though she didn't need one. She didn't cry. She couldn't cry. The tears wouldn't come. She didn't know vampires couldn't cry. She didn't want to know.

"I'm sorry, Shane." She gasped. "So sorry."

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	5. Desire

**Here ya go.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p>Shane hesitated, then he began to loosen his arms from around her. Claire's eyes snapped open and she tensed up. "No." She said. "Don't let me go." Because she was herself again, she knew that, but the hunger was still there. It whispered of desperation and pleasure and the slow drip of ruby blood from smooth dead lips.<p>

She closed her eyes and shuddered. "No." She whispered. "I'll kill you."

Shane paused, then resumed his tight hold. Myrnin was over with Eve, guzzling blood from one of the packs. Claire tried to tune out the sound, for fear of the madness whispering at the edges of her mind convincing her to do something she might later regret. She could just picture it, jumping up and tearing into the the delicious meat pulsing with red, red, blood. . . .

She shuddered and tried to push the pictures out of her head. "Tell me what your thinking." She said.

She sensed more than saw his wiry smile. "I'm trying not to think at all."

"Does this. . .what does this change? Between us, I mean? How do we get past this?" She asked.

He didn't speak for the longest time, and Claire counted each and every fraction of a millisecond with increasing trepidation. And finally, he spoke.

"I. . .I really couldn't say, Claire." He swallowed. "I do love you, but. . .I just. . . .I don't know what. . . .how changed you are, you, as a person, not as a . . .a . . .vampire." He tripped and stumbled over his words, and even with all she'd been through, was currently going through, she marveled at how the deep sounds bubbling out of throat made her quiver inside.

His voice suddenly gained surety, and a little hint of something slow and sexy. "But you still feel like Claire." His thumb began to rub small circles on her wrists, still pinned to her chest. "You still smell like her." He buried his nose in her hair, nuzzling her neck. "You still taste like her." And, to demonstrate, his tongue flicked out and teased her skin.

Her eyes snapped open with a surprise, and a gasp escaped her lips.

"Shane!" It was a cry, a breathless gasp, a release of all the stress and love and desire that was building up inside her, hotter and wilder and more uncontrollably than anything she'd felt with him before. She twisted in his arms, catching him by surprise and descending on him with a fiery passion that was way too much for the seriousness of the moment.

His eyes were wide with surprise, and he was completely caught off guard by her sudden assault. Claire just felt so full of emotions, almost too much to bear. Over joyed and over loved and with more desire than she'd ever thought possible pounding rhythmically through her, not to her heartbeat, for she no longer had one, but to Shane's wildly thumping heat.

Her mouth was all over him, and her legs twisted and her hips slammed him down into the floor, and she just couldn't get enough of him to satisfy. . . .

"Well. I think I'm a bit young to be watching this." Myrnin interrupted dryly.

Claire's eyes flashed open, remembering their audience, and in a vampire fast blur she was halfway across the room, both hands clapped to her mouth in mortification. Shane was left lying on the floor, hair mussed and a dazed expression on his face.

She could not believe she had so easily lost control of her emotions like that! Things were so much sharper and clearer and more sudden and fiery as a vampire, including her wants and desires. It reminded her of Myrnin, actually, from when she could touch her fingers in his mind.

No wonder the younger vampires had such a hard time controlling themselves. Just one little spark would ignite like gasoline, like love, and anger.

And hunger.

It was all just too much.

Speaking of hunger. Myrnin had two of the blood bags in his hands, held out to her. His face was expressionless.

Her eyes turned muddy red.

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	6. First Taste

**Been a wile scene I've posted, but here you go.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p>Myrnin didn't flinch when Claire darted foreword at vampire speed, grabbed the bag from him, and flashed back to the window. She completely forgot about Shane, amazingly, and found her focus captured by the blood bag. She bit down, noticing for the first time the delicate, feline fangs that extended past her lips. The liquid exploded on her tong, and her eyes widened.<p>

And then drifted closed in ecstasy.

The world was quiet. Quiet and dull. Sensation faded. Nothing was real anymore. Nothing could hold her here anymore. The ties that connected her to this world drifted away, and nothing was left. Just the blood. It was the only thing tethering her to reality anymore.

Imagine the soft brush of silk. Flowers bending in the wind. A baby's first laugh. A butterfly's wing beats. Now imagine your taste buds could experience these sensations. Imagine the sweetest, most sensational thing you've ever tasted, and multiply that by the biggest number you can think of. Do that, and you will come as close as your human mind can possibly conceive of what blood is to a vampire.

It was life. Pure and simple.

Something was off, though. She know it, even in her dazed euphoria. It was. . .stale, somehow. She suspected it was better straight from the source. Her eyes opened, and she dimly noted the film of red covering her vision. Things still seemed slow and faded, the whole of her mind concentrating on the gentile sucking motions of her mouth as she drained the blood, but she fought past that to look around.

Eve wasn't in her sight, but she herd movement in the hallway. The clink of metal, the thump of wood, and . . . . and a rhythmic sort of pounding that she couldn't identify. Shane was in the far corner, and the same thrumming came from him as well, drumming to a different beat. His arms were crossed and he was looking around at the ceiling, at the floor, anywhere but at Claire. A little pin point of darkness entered her mind when she saw that.

She didn't worry about it, though. There was simply too much other stuff to grab at her attention for her to focus on any one thing for too long. Like the light bulb flickering overhead. Or the taste of blood. Or the shadows cast through the window behind her. Or the taste of blood. Or Shane's eyelashes.

Or the taste of blood.

Or Myrnin.

She noticed him. He was so still. So very, very still. And his eyes were wide and deep and scary. She felt she could drown in them at that moment. He watched her and she watched him, and they both watched each other watching the other.

Claire sucked, blinked, sucked again, and realized the bag was empty. She wondered how long she and Myrnin had been locked together in each others eyes. She didn't look away as she let the blood bag drop to the floor. Time seemed oblivious to them all. She dimly noted that Shane was looking at them now, watching them watch each other, face cast in shadow.

She couldn't bring herself to care.

A small, predatory smile graced Myrnin's lips and his eyes burned red.

Boots stamped in the hall. Eve marched in, a false smile slapped on her face, and dropped a duffel bag on the hardwood floor. Stakes rattled and silver clinked from within.

"OK!" She said, slapping her hands together and rubbing them mischievously. "I'm going out to get Michele. Any of you fang bangers wanna come?"

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	7. Insane

**Thanks for reviews, little minions.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p>Myrnin blinked at her, and then something like pity crossed his eyes. "If Michele hasn't come back by now, he is already lost. He knew the risks he took going out, and he paid for them."<p>

Eve looked lost for a moment then, and Claire just wanted to flash over there and give her a hug and tell her everything was going to be all right, even though she knew it was hopeless. She had seen Magnus. Seen him smile. Seen the man that wasn't a man. He took Oliver with an ease that was terrifying.

If Magnus had Michele, he was already dead.

Eve pulled herself up and glared at Myrnin. "We don't need you anyway." She picked up her duffel bag, silver and stakes clunking together, and nodded to Shane and Claire. "Come on. We can find him ourselves." She stomped to the door and Shane sighed and ran his fingers through his hair and trudged after her. And Claire. . . .

Didn't.

Eve glanced back at her as she opened the door. "Come on, Claire bear. We have to go. Michele's in trouble."

Claire didn't move.

"Claire?" Shane stopped and said uncertainly. Myrnin was looking at her sadly now, knowing that she understood exactly how doomed this quest was.

A wrenching ache tore at her heart at the realization, and tears pricked her eyes. She had never known grief like this, sharp and painfully clear. Grief for herself, and especially for Eve. She could only hope Michele had died quickly.

"I don't think Michele is still alive." She said quietly.

Shane looked at her for a long moment, and Claire grew uncomfortable under his gaze. Eve looked at her, too. Guilt pricked at her conscious.

Everything blurred for a moment, twisted, became dark and scary. She blinked in confusion. Shane's expression of uncertainty literally melted off his face, and Claire blinked again and now his face was dark and mocking. _What is wrong with you? _He seemed to say. _What are you? You are a freak._

Eve's face was unreadable and cast in shadow. _"The old Claire wouldn't have said that."_

Claire flinched. It was a cruel whisper in her ear, and it was a cruel Eve that looked at her now. Sorrow and frustration and fear washed over Claire, and suddenly she just couldn't bare it. The alienation in Shane's eyes, the accusation in Eve's. . . .

She could not live the rest of her life with those expressions in her memory.

Barley noticing what she was doing, Claire turned on her heel and ran, straight for the stairs and up to her room, not even getting to the bed before she collapsed, sobbing on the floor.

What was the matter with her? She felt wrong. She'd felt wrong the moment she'd opened her eyes to her new life. Not just vampire wrong, but different wrong. She felt like she was just out of step with the rest of reality, not just dancing to a different beat, but thrashing in a whole different genre that was brighter and sharper and more terrifying than anything she'd felt in her head before. It was something familiar. Something she'd only touched on once before.

She felt completely and totally _**insane.**_

And it didn't help when Shane pointed it out, too. She could hear them, even from up here. Except for Myrnin. She couldn't pinpoint him, exactly.

"Was Michele that. . . crazy and bipolar after he was turned?"

A sigh left Eve's lips, and Claire herd the front door slam. "No." She said. "He went right back to normal after he got some juice in him. I don't know what is wrong with Claire."

"Maybe it's because she was, like... _dead_, dead and Michele was only dead at night."

"Maybe." Eve said doubtfully.

A moment of silence went by, during which Claire sniffed a little and rubbed at her nose. The pause was broken by Myrnin, who spoke with a strange note in his voice.

"I think. . . ." He said, "I think. . . . I might have driven Claire insane."

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><p><em>-"While this unliving horror cannot be slain in the traditional sense, there is one way to defeat the Draug. A hero, one who is pure of heart and is in good standing with God, must face the creature with only his bare hands, for only by wrestling this revenant into submission can one hope to defeat this monster."<em>

**Well, I don't know about **_**that**_**, but it's an interesting theory I found online. It also said ghosts have been known to become restless around Draugs, and rise from their graves and do battle, driving them away. It's an interesting idea for a fanfiction.**

**Read and Review.**


	8. Explanation

**This storry's offical stalker: MorganvilleRose**

**Sorry to other applicants, she got there first.**

**Enjoy.**

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><p>Claire was there in an instant, her expression carefully blank. A flash of lightning illuminated the outline of Myrnin, facing the living room window with his hands clasped behind his back. Claire felt the urge to shiver.<p>

It was raining outside again.

Magnus was on the hunt.

She didn't look at Shane and Eve, didn't want to look. She didn't want to see their faces blurred with unreality again, she didn't want to see the things that weren't there. She sensed them shift in response to her arrival, she herd Shane's heavy breathing, felt his mussels tense. She felt Eve tremble.

Claire herself remained blank through the three seconds it took for Shane to speak.

"What did you say?" The venom in his voice was a dark cloud in the air.

Myrnin remained facing the window unaware, or more likely, not caring about Shane's anger. His eyes stared distantly into the vortex of the night, wind and rain buffeting the panes feircly. He looked as if he was scearching for something only he could see, something not quite here, and not quite now, but there all the same.

His voice was a whisper, almost to himself. "My mother feared I would be as mad as my father."

Claire looked at his face in the reflection of the glass.

"I was feared I would be worse."

She blinked slowly, expression still carefully blank. "You think it's genetic." She stated.

Myrnin's forhead rested against the cool window, and his fingers gently pressed against the glass. "Correction." He said. "I _know_ it's genetic."

"What is genetic?" Eve asked hesetantly. "Your. . . .ahhh. . .crazyness?"

"What about the others?" Claire asked, ignoring her friend.

Myrnin finnaly turned away from the window and looked at her. "What others?"

Claire gestured impatiently, her first hint of anoyance to the whole situation. "You know. . .the others. Other vampires you've turned. Were they mad?"

Myrnin blinked at her. "There were no others." He said. "The only vampire I have ever turned becides you, was Ada, and I assure you she was quite mad. At the time, I attributed it to the deseise, but obviously that part of her was all me."

And now it was his turn to look blank. Claire winced, her heart momentairly going out to him, before she remembered he was the one that lost her sanity, and she hardened herself against the feeling. She knew this was just one more thing for him, one more revilation to be added to the list of things he had accedentily done to his old love.

He tuned back to the window, hands clasped behind his back. "I had wondered why it seemed to effect her as soon as she became one of us," He said. "-when it took others hundreds of years." He paused. "It wasn't the disease."

Claire and Eve, and even Shane looked at him now in silence.

"It was me." A hushed whisper.

A shiver ran through Claire, one that carried a metallic taste in her mouth and a flash of bitter hate, flaring red in her eyes. She felt her fangs slip down for a bare instant and bite into her gums before they retracted just as quickly, and her gums healed, leaving the taste of blood in her mouth. She shivered again at the sudden wave of fire that had just swept through her, and the taste of her own blood.

It was too bitter-sweet. It lacked the taste of life in it the human blood had, flavored instead of electricity that tickled her taste buds. It was not unpleasant, but not something she could ever see herself going out of her way to pursue.

Eve shifted impatiently, unaware of what had just gone down with Claire. "Well, what ever. I'm sorry, Claire, but Michele can't wait. I'm going out after him." She eyed Claire up and down. "Maybe you should. . ."

"No." Claire stated. "No. I'm not staying here."

Myrnin turned and looked at her again, frustration in his eyes. "Claire, we are being evacuated. Ameile will not. . ."

"No." Claire looked at him and her eyes burned. "Don't you say one word to me."

Myrnin opened his mouth, closed it again, started to speak, but Claire had already turned and stormed out the door. Shane looked at her as she pased, expression dark and brooding. She didn't look at him. Didn't glance at him.

Her eyes were bright and her teeth were sharp, and she walked out the door into Morganville, and for the first time sense she came to this town, she was unafraid of the dark.

She smiled.

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	9. Last Love

**Merry Christmas, little minions! I write this to you on my new lap top, (Mwahahaha!) and I remain comfy in my fluffy new vampire bunny slippers. (Myrnin should be discovering their disappearance right about now. XD)**

**Love to all the Morganville fans out there!**

**Read, Review, Enjoy.**

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><p>Claire wasn't afraid of the dark, simply because it didn't look dark to her. She stepped out onto the porch into what appeared to be bright daylight, and blinked in surprise. She glanced at her wrist, realized someone stole her watch while her body was in the morgue, got pissed, and glanced around again.<p>

"Hey," She shouted back to the house, "What time is it?"

She herd Myrnin chuckling from inside. Eve walked out of the house, squinting at her watch as if she couldn't see. _Hers_ didn't get stolen.

"Ida'no. Too dark out." She said, giving up and slinging her artillery bag over her shoulder. Shane came out next, phone glowing in hand. He was looking at the screen, avoiding Claire's gaze as he spoke to her. "It's three thirty in the morning."

Myrnin's soft laughter drifted through the air. "Look at the sky, little bird." He whispered, too low for human ears. "Look at the stars."

Claire stepped out from under the porch, Eve and Shane already running to the car, almost in slow motion, it seemed to her. She looked up at the sky, and gasped. Her eyes widened. She stopped breathing. The stars looked bigger, brighter, more luminous than ever before. They burned bright and big and cold, and she picked out more colors than should be passable from their licking, dancing flames. It didn't look real. It looked like something out of a science fiction movie.

Claire walked out onto the grass, head tipped to the sky. She stumbled backwards, trying to center herself for a better view. This was the first time sense waking up that she felt off balance. "Three, four. . . .five. . . .and that's the Lagoon Nebula." She muttered under her breath. ". . .and . . .and. . . .whats that? Is that. . .? Is that . . .? Myrnin, that's Kowal-Vavrova 1." She said louder, awe dominating her face. "Myrnin, you can't see that without a telescope. You would have to have pupils at least 9 mm wide."

Myrnin was suddenly right next to her, head tilted back with a small smile on his face. "Yes." He said. "I had almost forgotten how beautiful it was. It had become so commonplace to me." He looked at her then as she looked at the sky, that same small smile on his face. "Beautiful." He whispered.

"Claire!" Eve shouted out the window, breaking her concentration. "You might be all vamped out now, but it's still not healthy for us blood bags to be hanging around in the dark. If your coming, get a move on."

Claire nodded and started for the car, then stopped and turned to Myrnin. "Are. . . are you. . .?"

He smiled at her, brown eyes deep and sorrowful. "No, little bird. There are things that must be done, I cannot accompany you on this one. Do try and be careful, and when you first hear the singing, go no farther. I know it pains you, but send the humans on ahead of you. If you go with them, you share the same fate as Michele."

Claire frowned. "What singing?"

"Tell Ameile," He continued without answering her, ". . . should she find you, or should you find her, that you don't know where I am. It will be the truth, after all."

A small little smile appeared on his face, and he lifted one pale hand and lightly brushed the back of his knuckles across her cheek. She pinned it as another skill of her new eyesight that she could see him blur down the street when he ran off, instead of giving the appearance of just disappearing into thin air. She touched the place on her skin where his hand was and watched the place where he stood.

An insistent horn blared into her new senses and broke the spell. She blinked and flashed over to the car, noticing Shane was staring stonily out the windshield, even though Claire was pretty sure he couldn't see without the headlights on. She opened the door and slipped into the back seat, almost guilty silent.

Eve started up the hearse and they drove off without speaking. Shane suddenly broke the silence. "Why is Myrnin suddenly all over you?"

Claire really hated to say it, but she slowly came the realization in her heart. "Because he feels something for me, and he wants to give me the choice to live on with him, now that I'm like him. I don't think he views you as a permanet part of my life, now that I'm a vampire." She grimaced. "And your not, really." She realized this with a certain amount of dread.

"All he has to do is wait." She whispered, staring out the window at the passing houses. "He realizes now that I won't grow old, he has all the time in the world. Old age. A horrible accident. Something is going to come along to tear you, and Eve, and even my parents away, and then he'll be the only one left, besides Michele."_ If Michele is even still alive. _She added silently, for Eve's sake.

It started to hit her that she was going to live a long, long time, and most of it would be without Shane. She was gripped by a sudden fear that every moment she spent with Shane would never be enough. All the time she had with him suddenly became more precious than ever.

"Great." Shane said. "I knew it." Claire looked confused, and then realized he was still hung up on Myrnin's "feelings". She looked at Shane's face in the mirror. His blank expression had quickly turned into . . . .something else. Claire was glad Myrnin had gotten out while he still could.

What was wrong with him? Couldn't he see what she saw? Couldn't he see how very short his life was? Or maybe not. Maybe he could only see from his point of view. His girlfriend might be a blood sucker, but if he could get past that, he would have an eternally young collage girl at his side, and he wouldn't have to live a minuet without her if he didn't want to. Maybe he couldn't see that he would leave Claire alone in the world when he died.

Or maybe he just didn't care anymore.

"It's not like that." She said, her mood now quite foul. "He's-" She shook her head in frustration. "It's not like he's in love with me or anything; it's more complicated than that. I don't even think he understands it, exactly."

"Ya," Shane said, "he only loves you for your mind." His fist slammed down onto the dashboard. Silence reined once more.

"Uh, guys? Does anyone actually know where we're going?" Eve asked timidly.

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><p><strong>What do you think?<strong>

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	10. So Staked

**Smile, minions. :)**

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><p>"Well," Claire said, "I suppose we should find Magnus first. Where ever he is, the vampires will be." <em>If he hasn't all ready killed them. <em>She added silently.

"Who's Magnus?" Eve asked.

"Oh. Right. He's. . . ah. . .he's the one that killed me." Eve's fists tightened on the wheel. "He took Oliver, too, and he probably took those other missing vampires."

Eve frowned. "Oliver was vamp-napped?" She asked. "When did that happen? No,_ how_ did that happen? He's. . .like- one of the most bad ass blood suckers in town!"

Claire shuddered at the memory conjured up. "It was at the grocery store, when I fainted. Remember that? I saw him through the window with Oliver. I think he was under some kind of hypnosis, because he followed Magnus willingly. And then. . . ." Claire trailed off into silence.

"What?" Shane asked, catching her eye in the mirror.

"They went into the drains." She said quietly. "Oliver jumped down, but Magnus. . . .he, sort of. . . melted into the sewer." A moment went by and Eve and Shane shared a glance. "What?" Claire asked. "What is it?"

"Did he. . . ." Eve began. "Did he look sort of, shadowy? Like he was a weird thingy that was just trying to hide behind a human facade?"

Claire grimaced. "You've met him?"

"Ya." Eve said. "Some of them attacked us while we were getting stuff for Myrnin."

Her eyebrows drew together. "What do you mean? There's more than one of. . .whatever Magnus is?"

"No." Eve said. "It's more like there's multiple copies of whatever-the-hell-he-is running around. They're all exactly the same. We got a few of them with stakes, and silver works the same on them as it does on vampires."

Claire's eyebrows flew up. "Hmm. I wonder if they have similar genetic roots." She stared out the window for a few minuets, entertaining possibilities. _Sunlight doesn't effect them. The first time I saw Magnus it was daytime. I wonder if their immune to it or if their old enough to be unaffected, like the older vampires? _She grimaced. If so, he must be ancient. Even Bishop avoided taking midday strolls, unlike the Magnus she had seen, and he was older and more bad-ass than anyone else in Morganville.

Suddenly, Claire's head snapped up, and before she knew what she was doing, she unbuckled her seat belt and crawled between the two front seats in one smooth motion, peering out the window shield with dark eyes. "Pull over." She heard herself say. She felt Shane flinch at her sudden appearance. She heard Eve saying something to her. Asking a question. She didn't hear the meaning. She couldn't wait. Couldn't explain. She swung her feet into the front of the car with her, crowding into Shane's personal space.

She saw herself reach for the door handle.

She felt the wind grab her hair.

She didn't look down.

Shane made a grab at her, but he was too slow. Too humanly slow. She placed one delicate foot on the flying pavement and, defying the laws of velocity, simply stepped out onto the street. She'd gone three steps before Eve slammed on the brakes and through the hearse into reverse, spraying gravel across the road. "Claire!" Shane shouted.

She had her head cocked to the side, listing, but Shane's cry fell on def ears. Claire kept walking. Kept listing. She forgot about her friends. She forgot about Michele. That is, until Shane grabbed her shoulder and shouted something at her. She shrugged him off with vampire strength and continued on, eyes trained on the distance. Shane grabbed at her again, this time around the waist, and she ducked him and through his arm off with more force. Shane went spinning off, and Claire kept walking.

She herd Eve run up to Shane, shout something. She herd Shane shout back. She herd them run after her. She herd, but she didn't listen. Eve reached her first. She didn't grab at her, like Shane did. She went for the kill, metaphorically speaking. Little blue earplugs were shoved in her ears, somehow making it into her holes, and Claire spun around and swiped at Eve, fingernails first. She growled and her fangs snapped down, but Eve stumbled back and her nails connected with nothing but air.

She turned back to the south and continued on, ignoring Shane and Eve. She heard Shane run back to the car, desperately fast, sprinting for all his worth. But again, she didn't listen.

That was her mistake.

Eve ran at her, grabbed the front of her shirt, shouted something panicked sounding. Claire shoved her aside. She vaguely noticed her friend sprawled on the ground, looking at something behind her, towards the hearse. Eve's face was a mask of horror. Claire stepped past her, walking, head tipped to the side, listing. She heard shouts. Footsteps. A big hand folded over her shoulder, holding her in place. Before she could move, a pain exploded across her torso, and that snapped her out of it.

She blinked.

Looked down.

The tip of a stake.

Right where her heart would be.

She felt herself falling. Felt Shane catch her from behind. Saw his lips form words. _"Sorry."_

And still, she tyred to drowned herself in the unearthly singing calling to her from the mouths of the draug.

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><p><strong>Eat your heart out. X)<strong>

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	11. Frank?

**Hehe. I loved the reaction to the Shane-staking-Claire thing.**

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><p>Being staked actually wasn't all that bad at first.<p>

There was the cold. The stillness. The stifling helplessness. But no pain. For that, Claire was grateful.

After the initial fire ripping through her torso, Claire had gone completely numb. Sensation became muted. Touch, sight, taste, all coyed and cloudy, all except for sound. Sound was mercilessly detailed in comparison to her other deadened senses, and song drifting through the air, horrible and alluring. She felt, in that moment, that if she could get just a little bit closer, hear a little bit harder, she would be able to make out the words of song.

Time passed. Seconds melted into hours. Hours became days. She started to feel the pull of the void Myrnin had saved her from. She became aware of song fading into the distance. She missed it. It kept her company in the weeks she'd been gone. Claire's mind was in the place the eye did not see. She was in the place the eye did not want to see. Would she ever awaken? Had there ever been a time when she had been awake? She couldn't remember anymore.

It was after the first couple months that the voices started.

_Ash in the wind._ Some said. You_ are but ash in the wind._

_You'll never leave._ Some taunted. _You will stay here with us. Forever._

_Myrnin will come. _One said.

_Yesss!_ Others echoed._ The creator will come!_

_Call to him. Sing in his blood. He will come._

_Call him, dear one. Bring him to us._

_Call him!_

_Call him! _

_Call him!_

_"SHANE!"_ Claire screamed in her head.

"_Sorry."_ She heard his lips say.

She was lost in the darkness.

. . . . .

Years. It had to have been years later when the stake was finally, _finally_ removed. And. . .Oh! There was the pain she had been expecting. Delightful, horrable, wonderful pain. A break in the voices and the darkness and the emptiness. She gasped as the void reluctantly withdrew from her, leaving no trace of it's murky tendrils. Sight returned in a rush, and then sound, mercifully free of song, and touch, and. . .oh! Oh, dear god. What was that _taste_?

It glowed. _She _glowed. There were no words. She didn't even try. Couldn't try. She held warmth in her hand, and was drinking it down greedily. The warmth spread, first to her throat and then to her torso, through her bleeding heart and chest cavity. It healed and gave life. And then it was gone.

Claire's eyes snapped open and she gave a desperate grab at the still bleeding wrist before she came back to herself and realized, suddenly, that this was _Shane._ Oh, god. This was _Shane's_ blood she sipping, _Shane's_ life she was draining. She dropped out of the defensive, greedy crouch she had sunk into and fell back to the pavement, staring with horror at the bloody, bleeding arm Shane clutched, wrapping with torn up strips of cloth in a detached, almost medical manner. Much too calm.

He didn't look up, but answered her silent question. "It seemed the least I could do, considering." He gestured to the wooden stake lying a few feet away, dripping with black blood. A shudder passed through Claire.

"Why?" She asked.

He blinked at her. "Why what?"

"Why," She said, "Did you stake me?"

"Oh." Shane cleared his throat. "It was the singing. It's a trap. It's probably how they got Michele." He looked at her hard, then. "You herd it before us, and we couldn't stop you. The earplugs didn't work on you." He looked down at his bandaged arm. "I couldn't lose you." His voice broke. "Not again."

Claire looked down at herself. A pale, unmarked torso peeked at her from the rip in her shirt, edged by dark blood. No scar. It didn't even hurt. Shane's blood now coursed in her veins, and she suddenly felt the energy high pounding through her that surpassed even the feeling Myrnin's crystals had given her. She felt on top of the world. She felt she could do anything she put her mind to.

She smiled as she embraced the cold fire burning in her, and flipped up, vampire quick. Shane eyed her wearily. "Alright then." She nodded. "Off we go." Claire looked around, spotted the hearse a few feet away with Eve peeking out the window at her, and started towards it. Shane stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"You can't go." He said.

Now it was Claire who was blinking. "What. . .? Why not?"

Shane hesitated. "You know. The singing. The earplugs don't work on you." Remembering them, Claire reached up and plucked them out of her ears, noticing they were so useless to her vampire hearing, she hadn't even noticed they were in. "Eve and I are going to look in the drains." He gestured to the nearest sewer grate. "That's were Oliver was taken. That's where the water is. That's were we will find them." Now he gestured to the hearse. "You," He said. "Are going home."

Claire opened her mouth. Closed it. Tried to think of an argument. None came to mind. She was sure if she had time, she could make something to disrupt whatever frequency Magnus was singing on, but she didn't have time. Michele didn't have time.

She growled in frustration and let a ripple of Shane's borrowed energy shiver through her. She glared at the ground childishly.

Shane jogged over to the drivers side of the car and pulled out the keys, tossing them to Claire. She caught them easily enough, almost without thinking, and walked over to the car with a sigh.

"Hey." Shane said as he passed her. "You have to help me with the grate over the sewer. I admit my guns are impressive, but not bloodsucker impressive." He gave her that cute boyish smile she realized she had missed so much, the one that had been absent in the past couple of days.

If she had a heartbeat, it would have stopped then and there, because there was a kind of hope in his expression she hadn't seen in him in what seems like ages. Or not. . .hope. Not exactly. More like the desire to hope again. It put a little flutter of light and warmth inside her belly, so fragile and pale as to be all the more precious.

She smiled back and walked over to grate, reaching down without looking away from him, picking up the heavy iron and throwing it into the grass with one hand. Eve walked over first, almost hesitant, silver flashlight in hand. She smiled after a moment and through her arms around Claire. Claire hugged her back gratefully, glad for her friends presence and trying to ignore the pulsing, pounding ambrosia teasing her under thin, pale skin, just begging to be ripped open and drained. . .

She shook her head and stepped back quickly, smiling sheepishly. "Go on." She said. "Save Michele. It'll be a nice change from him saving you all the time."

Eve scoffed. "Ha! I let him save me so he doesn't feel like such a useless bloodsucker." She grinned. "No offence."

"None taken." She smiled and Claire helped her down into what must have been pitch black to Eve. Her flashlight bobbed around a minuet before she got her barring, and pointed it farther down the tunnel. Shane stepped forward, and he slipped down without Claire's help, but he held himself up with his hands so she bent down to his level and looked into his eyes. He smiled and leaned forward to plant a kiss on her pale cheek, and whispered in her ear, "Be safe." before he let himself drop.

Claire smiled and touched her face where Shane's warmth still lingered, and turned back to the hearse while her friend's breathing faded down to the underground. She was still smiling when her phone gave out a shrill ring, promptly scaring the crap out of her, and while she fumbled the keys into the ignition, she reached into her pock and flipped open her phone. No number was on the screen.

"Claire!" A gruff voice shouted out of the speaker.

She hesitated. "Frank?"

"What the hell are you doing? Get Shane out of Morganville!"

"What are you talking about?" She asked, bewildered.

He swore, and static filled the air. "Ameile is pulling the plug. Get him out of Morganville before everyone dies!"

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><p><strong>Ahhh. . . Frank. What would this storey be without you?<strong>

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